A prosecutor assigned in Agoo, La Union was sentenced last Friday here in the city with a total jail term of 147 years after the court found him guilty of large scale illegal recruitment, among other charges.

Atty. Catalino Pepi was sentenced by Regional Trial Court Branch 3 Judge Fernando Vil Pamintuan after he was found guilty of simple illegal recruitment, large scale illegal recruitment, and 10 counts of estafa in 15 cases filed by 13 persons.

The 59-page decision mentioned that the acts emanated from the recruitment of the 13 persons who were originally offered employment in Holland, South Korea, Japan, and Brunei.

The promise of employment in a certain destination was, however, moved to a different destination until most recently the complainants who were recruited in Baguio City, were all told they were bound for South Korea.

Despite the promise of an employment, Pepi, who is the vice president of Transcend employment services, was not able to send the 13 persons abroad, thus the filing of a complaint with the National Bureau of Investigation which later led to Pepi’s arrest.

The court wrote that Pepi did not deny recruitment of the 13 persons as well as the receipt of the payment from them for employment abroad.

He also did not deny issuing receipts of the payments written in yellow pad as well as his telling the complainants that he is a prosecutor in La Union.

Pepi’s defense was that although he has no license to recruit in Baguio and the Cordillera, his agency, Transcend employment services, has a license to recruit issued in Manila and that he is acting as an agent and representative of the corporation being its vice president. Pepi also presented a decision of an RTC in San Fernando, La Union acquitting him of a similar charge.

However, based on a testimony of a Philippine Overseas Employment Agency-Cordillera official, the license to recruit by Transcend is in Manila and it was subsequently revoked thus, the need for the company to secure a special recruitment authority from POEA-Cordillera before doing recruitment activities here.

A license, the POEA said, cannot be used in any place other than the place stated in the license and an additional office anywhere shall be subject to approval of the Department of Labor and Employment, a factor which strengthens the case of the prosecution in the charge.